Marystown council looking to adjust attitudes towards litter

An unsightly amount of litter and trash has built up in an area near Mall Street in Marystown. - Paul Herridge

Cleanup subcommittee to be created with goal of establishing education project

MARYSTOWN, NL – Marystown council is hoping to start a litter revolution.

During council’s regular meeting Tuesday, March 7, planning and development chair Coun. Mike Brennan tabled a successful motion that will see the creation of a cleanup subcommittee.

It will be tasked with establishing and implementing an educational project aimed at keeping Marystown clean and beautiful year-round, he said.

Brennan said, though it plays a positive role, it’s not enough for the town to come together for a few days annually to clean up garbage around the community, only for the effort to fall by the wayside the rest of the year.

Regular walkers who are out and about all the time have told him how messy it is around the town, he said.

“This is not about picking up a bag of garbage. This is about setting up a project to see if we can change the way that people think,” Brennan said.

The cleanup subcommittee will fall under the protections to persons and property committee.

One of the ideas discussed by the planning and development committee in coming up with the recommendation for council to form the subcommittee was to reach out to youth, Brennan said, starting when they’re in kindergarten, so the message is entrenched early.

Another possible idea would see signs placed strategically throughout the town so that they serve as an everyday reminder to residents.

“We’ve been trying to clean up the town, but I think it’s time we started looking at it on a different angle,” Brennan said.